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‘The trouble with all elect brotherhoods is that they tend to place themselves above the ruck of mankind.’

verb

[no object]Rugby Australian Rules Football

Take part in a ruck.

‘too often the pack failed to ruck as a unit’

‘in the games so far the pack has mixed its rucking and mauling well’

‘Tullamore were scrummaging better and their rucking was top class.’

‘Bury laid siege to the Kirby Lonsdale 22 for the first ten minutes and having won three successive line-outs should have kept the ball tight in the forwards and rucked and mauled their way to the line.’

‘Kendal's pack, missing some key men among six absent first-team regulars, suffered in the set scrummage but rucked and mauled well.’

‘The pack were excellent throughout, controlling the scrum and line-outs and aggressively rucking and mauling.’

‘This season, Jim Telfer has been lending his experience and infectious fervour and pugnacity to Scotland's rucking and mauling and at times there did seem more of the dynamic impact of bygone days.’

‘They have a very good pack which rucks well, and have a good defence too, so we'll have to be on top of our game to put them away.’

‘They worked tirelessly as a unit and their ball retention, rucking and tackling were almost faultless.’

‘With an all new control system that is intuitive and user friendly, players will be rucking, mauling, and kicking like champions in no time.’

‘Enniscorthy rucked and mauled up field and they were awarded another penalty in the 60th minute when Port strayed offside.’

‘The forwards rucked and mauled to near perfection although they did not dominate the line-out like they can do.’

Origin

Middle English (in the sense ‘stack of fuel, heap’): apparently of Scandinavian origin; compare with Norwegian ruke ‘heap of hay’.

Main definitions of ruck in English

ruck3

noun

‘We experienced that the Germans have a strange tendency to bump into people, which no one seemed to mind, however had this happened in a club back in England, it would certainly have lead to a ruck.’

‘The award, a virtual passport to fame and fortune, can usually be relied on to bring out the worst in the male-dominated world of stand-up, including a ruck at the party in the early hours of Sunday when the winner is announced.’